Dimming Of The Day
by ibbity
Summary: spoilers for ep. 24 What if Revy didn't manage to block Ginji's katana?


Well, finals are over and done with, so I can get back to writing fanfics

_**Well, finals are over and done with, so I can get back to writing fanfics **_

_**This one starts kind of abruptly, but it's been a while since I saw ep. 24, and I guess if you're reading this you already know all the events that led up to this. anyway here goes.**_

Rock turns his head away from Yukio just in time to see Revy go down. Ginji's in the way, so Rock doesn't see what's happening for a second. Then the man staggers back and falls, leaving Revy sprawled on the ground with his katana impaled in her chest. She stares dazedly at it, seemingly at a loss.

Rock hurls himself towards Revy, and when he reaches her he pulls the katana from her body. Revy wails with pain; the sound hits Rock like a shower of ice water. He kneels beside her, sliding an arm under her shoulders to cradle her against him, desperately trying to stem with his other hand the dark wetness spreading across her front.

Revy turns her head away and coughs wetly; a rivulet of blood issues from the corner of her mouth. She raises a shaking hand and offers her remaining pistol to Rock.

"Take it," she whispers, blinking slowly.

"No, that's yours, you need it," Rock answers, hardly knowing what he's saying. "You need a doctor, there must be a hospital somewhere around here…"

Revy shakes her head, fighting for breath. "Pointless…" she gasps. "'M dying…Take the damn gun, Rock…" She coughs again, spraying blood on his jacket. "I'm giving it to you, damn it…"

Rock takes the gun from Revy, then sets it on the ground beside them and wraps his free arm around her, holding her close to him. Revy leans her head on his shoulder; neither of them speaks. After a few moments, Rock feels her breathing stop.

Rock doesn't know how long he sits there holding Revy's body, but he eventually realizes that he cannot stay there forever. Against his will, he reluctantly lays her down and straightens his stiff back, wondering how to break the news to Dutch and Benny.

Rock looks down at Revy's face, somehow serene in death, and leans forward to gently kiss her bloody mouth. He comes away with the iron taste of her blood in his own mouth.

Rock brings Revy home to Roanapur to be buried. Dutch and Benny are there to meet him when he gets off the plane. None of them have much to say.

After Revy's funeral is over, the finality of her loss hits Rock afresh. He wishes time would stop so he could hide from the world, but it doesn't and the Lagoon Traders must continue on even without their Two Hands. Rock understands that now Revy's gone he will have to pick up the slack; Benny's no kind of fighter and that leaves Rock. He carries Revy's Cutlass all the time now; the other two know it's one of hers but they don't comment on it. The first time Rock actually shoots and kills someone with it, it's the hardest thing he's ever done. The first time.

Rock takes to sleeping in the shirt Revy gave him. He still can hardly stand to look at the thing, but at night he finds a shred of comfort in wearing her gift while he smothers in his pillow the tears he won't let himself shed in the day light. And every morning he sees in the mirror his eyes becoming flat, drained of emotion, bleak. The eyes of a killer.

Some nights Rock dreams of Revy. In some of those dreams, he relives her death, her life draining away under his hands. Those dreams are bad enough, but the ones that really get to him are the ones in which she's alive and well, just being her usual brash self. Rock always wakes up from these with tears running down his face, the ache of missing Revy threatening to choke him.

It's been exactly one year today since Revy's death. Rock comes and sits by her grave alone as the sun goes down. He knows she was never the flowers type, so he's brought a handful of bullet casings, which he lays in front of her headstone. He draws his knees up to his chin, sets his arms on top, and buries his face in them.

Rock sits like that in silence for a long time. When he eventually raises his face, it's wet, but no one's there to see. He lifts a hand and traces Revy's name carved on the stone.

Then Rock rises to his feet and walks away into the darkness.

_**fin**_


End file.
